More snow!!!

[GaRRy]

God you're a hard man flecc.......you and your love of nature......how can you reconcile that with shooting grey squirrels ?
It isnt their fault that they were introduced here, they are only trying their best and acting naturally to survive in a hard world, like wild animals do....... bit like all of us really.

Come on, put your gun down and live and let live.
Who are we to decide whose right to live is more valid than anothers.......songbird, squirrel, fox, badger, rabbit, mouse, spider et al ??.........they are all nature at its best.......and worst.....

Lynda

What about rats and mice ?

 

[muckymits]

We had one move in to the woods near us a few years ago, it dared to venture in to our garden. The cat cornered it by the shed and gave it 'a good talking to', was never seen again

This is red squirrel country, a completely different animal, soo much cuter. Has anyone else noticed on the tele adverts they often have grey squirrels disguised as reds? Biggger more rat like and no tufts.


Just seen Lyndas post......your a north east lass you should be defending our reds.....kill the American tree rats

 

[funkylyn]

What about rats and mice ?

Oh, come on GaRRy, its valentines day, Im in a love everything and everyone mood today.........5 days in bed have done me the world of good........

here mousie mousie......here ratty ratty .......



Lynda

 

[flecc]

The law is there for a reason Lynda, they are vermin, registered pests for a good reason, just like rats and mice as Garry remarks.

My killing is humane, I only take clean and certain instant kill shots, if that's not certain I don't shoot since I never wish to cause any animal suffering.

You'd be horrified at the official squirrel killing advice. Put it in a sack, manouvre it's head into a corner and strike it hard with a hammer.

 

[Old_Dave]

Oh, come on GaRRy, its valentines day, Im in a love everything and everyone mood today.........
Lynda

I suppose a ****'s out of the question ?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[morphix]

In my garden I shoot them, 166 since June 2005.

Grey squirrels are a pest, they've largely deposed our native reds, and in the Spring when remaining natural foods are in short supply, they happily eat songbird eggs and will even eat the chicks alive. Since they have no natural predators here, other then man, they often saturate areas of woodland to a high density with widespread harm to our native wildlife.

Did you know that in the UK it is illegal to release one once trapped, they have to be killed then by law?

I'm shocked flecc, like Lynda :-O I can't reconcile how you can be so caring of nature and kill these innocent little cute critters. Nature can be harsh, but that harshness isn't exclusive to grey's, you'll find all kinds of wild creatures do weird and harsh things by our standards (crows will steal other birds eggs and some will attack sheep and lambs, pecking at their eyes) should we kill them all? Some birds even push the weak hatchlings or sick ones from the nest to die so the others have a better chance of survival. I don't think you can apply human rationale or morales to wild animals. It's survival of the fittest and it's just their way.

The greys never asked to be brought here after all like Lynda said.. we brought them here so only have ourselves to blame if they proliferated as rodents generally do. I think there are some predators of baby grey squirrels (crows, eagles, foxes, wild cats maybe), and also many fall victim every year to road kill.

I think though that feeding and encouraging greys (as I do) is probably not a good idea and just encourages the squirrels to move further into more urban areas which causes problems with humans.. squirrels can do damage to buildings, especially if they get into the loft. I've noticed if I feed birds and squirrels they forage less and tend to stay closer to a regular food source I provide...the birds build their nests right next to my balcony and the squirrels stay close by. Maybe it's not helping these wild animals if they lose their natural instincts to forage and find food for themselves.

 

[funkylyn]

I suppose a ****'s out of the question ?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Dumfries to Somerset ??......tssss.......by the time you got here dave valentines day would be

over....lifes a bitch eh.......

Lynda

 

[funkylyn]

I'm shocked flecc, like Lynda :-O I can't reconcile how you can be so caring of nature and kill these innocent little cute critters. Nature can be harsh, but that harshness isn't exclusive to grey's, you'll find all kinds of wild creatures do weird and harsh things by our standards (crows will steal other birds eggs and some will attack sheep and lambs) should we kill them all? Some birds even push the weak hatchlings or sick ones from the nest to die so the others have a better chance of survival. I don't think you can apply human rationale or morales to wild animals. It's survival of the fittest and it's just their way.

The greys never asked to be brought here after all like Lynda said.. we brought them here so only have ourselves to blame if they proliferated as rodents generally do. I think there are some predators of baby grey squirrels (crows, eagles, foxes, wild cats maybe), and also many fall victim every year to road kill.

I think its " cue one of your cute squirrel videos time " paul and let us enjoy seeing our wildlife being friendly with the natives.....

Lynda

 

[morphix]

I think its " cue one of your cute squirrel videos time " paul and let us enjoy seeing our wildlife being friendly with the natives.....

Lynda

They are amazing creatures to watch, funny and quite clever. I've filmed many up close, each has their own little quirks. I used to design challenges for them with food in and hide food in places. One squirrel became so friendly one summer it would just come into my flat whenever it liked and help itself to a few nuts from a bowl and just sit there letting me film it. He was very fond of peanut butter on rye bread

The thing is though with grey squirrels, you have to respect they're wild animals and as tame as they appear, they can quickly change and become very unpredictable if you invade their space and they get spooked I've seen some very tame squirrels being hand fed outside in videos on YouTube but I'd never risk doing that myself..I managed to touch one once.. the fur is not soft like you would imagine, its rough like horse hair.. but the tail is softer than silk.

 

[GaRRy]

Dumfries to Somerset ??......tssss.......by the time you got here dave valentines day would be

over....lifes a bitch eh.......

Lynda

You do know Dave owns a Helicopter ?

 

[GaRRy]

I'm shocked flecc, like Lynda :-O I can't reconcile how you can be so caring of nature and kill these innocent little cute critters.

Ah buts ite precisely because he cares about nature that he can do this. Grey squirrels are effecting the natural balance of things and while its mans fault to let the imbalance go unchecked is madness.

Lets pick another cute animal Minks. Im sure you think they are pertty fury creatures as well. But they need erradicating in this country as they are completely destorying our native wildlife. I spend a lot of time on the canals and you can tell when you are in mink territory as you will not see a single duck or wildfowl and were not talk over a few 100 metres). Sure turning them into coats is morally wrong IMHO but letting them loose was not the answer.

Of course its mad to think man can fully control nature but I do beleive where its in our power we should try even thought there is no denying we have made quite a few cock ups over the years (Rabbits is another one).

 

[morphix]

Ah buts ite precisely because he cares about nature that he can do this. Grey squirrels are effecting the natural balance of things and while its mans fault to let the imbalance go unchecked is madness.

Lets pick another cute animal Minks. Im sure you think they are pertty fury creatures as well. But they need erradicating in this country as they are completely destorying our native wildlife. I spend a lot of time on the canals and you can tell when you are in mink territory as you will not see a single duck or wildfowl and were not talk over a few 100 metres). Sure turning them into coats is morally wrong IMHO but letting them loose was not the answer.

Of course its mad to think man can fully control nature but I do beleive where its in our power we should try even thought there is no denying we have made quite a few cock ups over the years (Rabbits is another one).

I can see your point, and I think man interferes in nature as you say, and creates this imbalance (often without realising the consequences) and then has to redress that with a cull (if he wishes to see the natural balance and wildlife restored). The minks problem from what I understand was largely brought about by caring (but misguided) animal welfare rights activists who released a load of them from fur factories into the wild!

There's a lot of wild rabbits where I live but they have their own area a large park by a lake, you can see them everywhere in the spring and summer coming and going from their burrows. The greys are absolutely everywhere now around here..you can't walk more than 500 meters and not see one, and I agree with what you're saying that they perhaps we need to take some measures to control their effect on the natural habitat and other wildlife, where there's evidence they're causing a problem in some areas. Perhaps some kind of sterilising program might help reduce breeding..

Another thing too, domestic cats have also had a dramatic and damaging effect on wildlife (maybe more so than grey squirrels)!

 

[flecc]

I'm shocked flecc, like Lynda :-O I can't reconcile how you can be so caring of nature and kill these innocent little cute critters.

It's precisely because I am caring of nature. I live alongside a large nature reserve and bird sanctuary which the council have a responsibility for, at one time carrying out at least four culls of greys every year to keep them under control. In the 1990s they ran down and then stopped the culls as an economy measure, having dismissed the staff needed. As result the greys bred out of control to maximum density with devastating effects on the birdlife, song birds especially. Thrushes were totally wiped out and blackbirds reduced to near disappearance for example.

Therefore some of us took over some culling function of the squirrels crossing repeatedly between the reserves and another small woodland in search of the food they'd ate themselves out of. In the harder winters large numbers starved to death and the over population led to two severe outbreaks of sarcoptic mange, killing many more due to the disease effects or cold exposure due to loss of coat.

Those are all agonising deaths which I would not wish on any creature, so the instant death by shooting is a kind act, it's essential to prevent extreme suffering. For the same reasons we cull deer and sometimes other creatures, letting starvation and disease do it being far worse options.

Hopefully you'll understand that taking an instinctively kind but uninformed view can often lead to such unnecessary suffering.

 

[morphix]

It's precisely because I am caring of nature. I live alongside a large nature reserve and bird sanctuary which the council have a responsibility for, at one time carrying out at least four culls of greys every year to keep them under control. In the 1990s they ran down and then stopped the culls as an economy measure, having dismissed the staff needed. As result the greys bred out of control to maximum density with devastating effects on the birdlife, song birds especially. Thrushes were totally wiped out and blackbirds reduced to near disappearance for example.

Therefore some of us took over some culling function of the squirrels crossing repeatedly between the reserves and another small woodland in search of the food they'd ate themselves out of. In the harder winters large numbers starved to death and the over population led to two severe outbreaks of sarcoptic mange, killing many more due to the disease effects or cold exposure due to loss of coat.

Those are all agonising deaths which I would not wish on any creature, so the instant death by shooting is a kind act, it's essential to prevent extreme suffering. For the same reasons we cull deer and sometimes other creatures, letting starvation and disease do it being far worse options.

Hopefully you'll understand that taking an instinctively kind but uninformed view can often lead to such unnecessary suffering.

I do understand, but I'm against people stereotyping against squirrels (or any wildlife) as inherently bad animals and the exterminate exterminate exterminate thinking. If the squirrels are in a sensible number and not causing any problem to the environment, leave them alone. They're just entitled to live as any other creature is. If there's a problem, then clearly some intervention action has to be taken, but that should be done by the authorities and trained individuals, not people running around with air guns.

 

[Old_Dave]

not people running around with air guns

I quite agree... shotgun or .22lr is a better choice (mine you the .22lr is a bit ott)

 

[funkylyn]

You do know Dave owns a Helicopter ?

OH.................S**T !!!!!

Lynda

 

[funkylyn]

I do understand, but I'm against people stereotyping against squirrels (or any wildlife) as inherently bad animals and the exterminate exterminate exterminate thinking. If the squirrels are in a sensible number and not causing any problem to the environment, leave them alone. They're just entitled to live as any other creature is. If there's a problem, then clearly some intervention action has to be taken, but that should be done by the authorities and trained individuals, not people running around with air guns.

Totally agree Paul, I hate that 'dalek' syndrome when its not necessary, however we are both realists and realise there can always be a time and a place for everything but please, no excessive killing just for the hell of it........

Lynda

 

[Old_Dave]

You do know Dave owns a Helicopter

Just warming the chopper up now

 

[funkylyn]

Just warming the chopper up now

ROFLMAO.......put your money where your rotor blades are dave

Lynda

 

[Old_Dave]

I said I was warming it up..... this cold weather plays havoc with the oil so it may be some time